Clock



April 13, 1965 R. o. ERNEST ETAL CLOCK Filed April 12, 1963 WATM UnitedStates Patent M 3,177,646 CLOCK Robert 6. Ernest, Oak Park, and CharlesA. McLeod,

Evanston, Ell, assignors to Sunbeam Corporation, Chicage, Ill, acorporation of Illinois Filed Apr. 12, 1%3, Ser. No. 272,644

4 Claims. (Cl. 5S-2) This invention relates to clocks and moreparticularly to the face and crystal configuration of a wall clock.

In the design and styling of clocks, it is frequently desirable toutilize a face having a spherical curvature. The spherically curved faceprovides opportunities for the stylist to produce an unusual andappealing clock design. It is conventional to provide such a clock facewith indicia spaced around the hands which are adapted to rotate about ahorizontally disposed axis. The hands rotate along a spherically curvedpath in close proximity tothe clock face and the indicia providedthereon.

To enclose the face and dial, a transparent crystal having a curvaturecorresponding to the face is conventionally provided. While thespherically curved face and crystal have .an appeal from a stylingstandpoint, there are functional disadvantages which have limited theiruse or made the clocks in which they have been incorporatedunsatisfactory from the standpoint of ease of telling time. Thisfunctional problem is particularly noticeable in connection with wallclocks and involves the reflections associated with both the face andcrystal. These reflections consist of the images of the artificiallights in the room being reflected into the eyes of the user preventinghim from observing the position of the clock hands. The glare of naturallight from Windows is similarly reflected preventing easy observation ofthe clock hands.

A flat face and crystal have a tendency to reflect light into the userseyes only at a very few selected positions. A spherical surface,however, has a tendency to pick up light from almost any source in theroom in which it is located and reflected toward the user. It would bedesirable, therefore, to provide a clock with a spherically curved facewhich would have little tendency to reflect light toward the user of theclock.

An object of this invention is to provide an improved clock having aspherically curved face which has little tendency to reflect light.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved crystal fora clock having a spherically curved face.

Another object of the invention is to provide a clock with anonreflecting time indicating display which includes a sphericallycurved clock face.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent as the following description proceeds and the features ofnovelty which characterize the invention will be pointed out withparticularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of thisspecification.

Briefly, the above objects are realized in accordance with the presentinvention by the provision of a cylindrically curved crystalsuperimposed over a spherically curved clock face. The cylindricallycurved shape of the crystal in combination with a forward inclinationvirtually eliminates undesirable light reflections normally associatedwith clocks having spherically curved faces.

For a better understanding of the present invention, reference may behad to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wall clock embodying our invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the clock of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view with the front portion 3,177,646Patented Apr. 13, 1965 2 gf the:1 clock shown in section taken on line3-3 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the clock of FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, in FIG. 1 a clock 11 is illustratedembodying the features of our invention. The clock includes a casing 12which is formed with a spherically curved face 13 and rearwardlyextending side walls 14. The casing 12 forms a rearwardly facingcupshaped structure within which a motor and movement 15 are received.This motor and movement 15 may be of the spring wound variety or mayinclude a battery or alternating current operated electric motor.

In the form disclosed, the clock 11 is a wall clock and would normallyinclude some means (not shown) whereby it could be supported from a hookon the wall of a room. It should be appreciated, however, that theinvlentlion may also be applied to a table or desk type of 0 oc Themotor and movement 15 are drivingly connected to an hour hand 16, aminute hand 17 and a second hand 18 in a conventional manner. The face13 positioned immediately behind the hands 16, 17 and 18 is providedwith a spherical curvature as was mentioned above. The clock hands aresupported for rotation about a horizontal axis Which may be consideredextending radially with respect to the curvature of face 13. The handsare curved rearwardly so that they rotate along spherical paths in closeproximity to the face 13. To facilitate accurate reading of the time,the face 13 is provided with minute and hour indicia 19 positionedaround the axis of rotation of the hands 16, 17 and 18.

To enclose and protect the face 13 of the clock 11 and the hands 16, 17and 18, there is provided a transparent crystal 21 which includes acylindrically curved front wall 22 and rearwardly extending sides 23.The sides 23 engage the casing 12 thereby cooperating with the face 13to form a chamber 24 within which the hands of the clock are enclosed.As may best be seen in FIG. 2, the front wall 22 of crystal 21 isprovided with a cylindrical curvature which is substantially the same inradius as the curvature of the face 13. The axis of the cylindricallycurved crystal 21 lies in the same vertical plane as the axis aroundwhich the hands rotate. It should be noted, however, that this axis ofthe crystal 21 is inclined forwardly so that the face 22 of the crystalis inclined with respect to the vertical. As is shown in FIG. 3, theangle A between the horizontal axis around which the hands rotate andthe front wall 22 is less than degrees. In one preferred embodiment, itwas found that an angle A of 3 /2 degrees functioned well whileretaining an esthetically appealing configuration. It should beappreciated that too great an inclination of the front 22 of the crystalcreates a design problem in integrating the crystal 21 with the clockcase 12.

The purpose of the cylindrical shape of the crystal 21 and theinclination with respect to the vertical is to reduce the amount oflight which would normally be refiected into the eyes of a personattempting to read the clock. It has been found that a spherical crystaland a spherical clock face have a tendency to reflect toward the userimages of any and all bright light sources within a room. Because of thenature of the spherical reflecting surface, all such undesiredreflections are seen by the person attempting to read the clock fromalmost any position and regardless of the location of the light sources.It may be appreciated that with a flat crystal there would be only asingle position of the user in which he would receive the undesiredreflection from a single light source. The spherical surface, however,has the disadvantage of having many different angled surface portionswhich may 3 reflect regardless of the position of the source or the userof the clock.

In addition to providing the inclined cylindrical wall 22 on the crystal21, there has also been a modification made in the face 13 tominimize'reflections therefrom. The face 13 has been roughened ortextured so as to substantially eliminate reflections therefrom. Asimilar reis evident from FIG. 1, the curved intersections of the frontwall 22 andside walls 23 of crystal 21 tend to create the illusion thatthe crystal does not depart from the shape of the face 13 as much as itactually does.

Other advantages associated with the cylindrically shaped crystal ascompared to' the spherically curved crystal are the simplicity intooling, ease of manufacture and lessening of visual distortion. Thesimple cylindrical curvature embodied in crystal 21 presents no toolingor manufacturing problems. The resulting crystal may easily bemanufactured so that there are no areas which distort the users view ofthe face enclosed therein. In contrast, the manufacture of a distortionfree spherical crystal by the usual techniques of plastic molding is almost impossible.

While a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown, it willbe understood, of course, that the invention is not limited theretosince many modifications may be made, and it is, therefore, contemplatedby the appended claims to cover any such modifications as fall Withinthe true spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed as new and desired tobe secured by Letters Patent of theUnited States is:

1. A clock comprising a face extending substantially tions, a crystalcovering said face and inclined forwardly,

2. A clock comprising a face extending substantially vertically andhaving a spherical curvature, hands rotatable about a horizontal axis inclose proximity to said face to cooperate with said face in providingtime indications, said face being provided with a roughened surface tominimize light reflection therefrom, a crystal covering said face andinclined forwardly, said crystal being curved in horizontal section withthe radius curvature corresponding to the radius of curvature of saidface.

3. In a wall clock, a nonreflecting time indicating display comprising aface formed of a spherical section, hands mounted for rotation about ahorizontal axis extending radially with respect to said sphericalsection,

indicia spaced around said axis to cooperate with said hands to providetime indications, and acrystal of cylindrical section having the axisthereof lying in a vertical plane including said horizontal axis andbeing inclined to the vertical so that the crystal is tilted downwardlyto minimize reflections, the radius of curvature of said crystal beingsubstantially the same as that of said face.

4. In a wall clock a casing enclosing a motor and movement, aface on thefront of said casing, hands driven by said movement and positioned infront of said face to cooperate with indicia thereon to provide a timeindication, said face having the shape of a spherical section with saidindicia being spaced around a horizontally extending axis, said handsturning about said a iis which extends radially of said sphericalsurface, a transparent crystal covering said face and having a frontwall of cylindrical section and side walls extending rearwardly fromsaid front wall into engagement with said casing, the axis of saidcylindrical section intersecting said horizontally extending axis andbeing inclined forwardly 'to minimize reflections.

, References tilted in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,672,666 2,233,708 Norton Mar. 4, 1941 2,285,658 Hitchcock June 9, 19422,444,748 Parissi July 6, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS 910,600 Germany j May 3,1954 Walsh .4. June '5, 1928

1. A CLOCK COMPRISING A FACE EXTENDING SUBSTANTIALLY VERTICALLY ANDHAVING A SPHERICAL CURVATURE, HANDS ROTATABLE ABOUT A HORIZONTAL AXIS INCLOSE PROXIMITY TO SAID FACE TO COOPERATE WITH SAID FACE IN PROVIDINGTIME INDICATIONS, A CRYSTAL COVERING SAID FACE AND INCLINED FORWARDLY,SAID CRYSTAL BEING CURVED IN HORIZONTAL SECTION WITH THE RADIUSCURVATURE CORRESPONDING TO THE RADIUS OF CURVATURE OF SAID FACE.